In his first State of the Nation Address (SONA), President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. highlighted the role of the newly formed Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) in improving the welfare of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
The DMW didn’t disappoint Marcos. In the second half of 2022, the agency lifted the OFW deployment ban to Saudi Arabia and launched its One Repatriation Center, opening hotlines for repatriation, welfare and other concerns of distressed OFWs.
The agency is on track with Marcos’ plan of digitizing government processes. It developed and is set to launch a mobile application called OFW Pass, which OFWs can use to secure their digital identification and access other government apps.
With the help of the Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA), the DMW is eyeing the establishment of an electronic Business One-Stop Shop (eBOSS) to reduce the processing time for documents that OFWs need.
However, out of the four labor-related promises Marcos mentioned in his maiden SONA, none tackled the pressing issues that Filipino workers face today.
In a statement after the SONA in July last year, activist labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno lamented the president’s lack of plans to address contractualization and workers’ wages. This is despite Marcos previously expressing his intent to revisit the Security of Tenure or anti-endo bill when he was campaigning.
Find out more on how Marcos fared in his SONA promises related to labor:
